The Offer

Open a Convenience+ checking account with Amalgamated Bank and get $150 bonus after receiving a $500 direct deposit within 60-days

[Update: they’ve now added in wording of “a recurring direct deposit” (underlining is mine). Could be they now want it to come monthly.]

Aside from the $150 bonus for you, Amalgamated Bank will also donate $50 to Color of Change (or one of five other charities).

The Fine Print

To qualify for this bonus of $150, you must open a Convenience+ Checking Account between April 15 and June 30, 2016, using the URL provided or by mentioning this special offer when you apply by visiting a branch

“Direct deposit” includes ACH credits of payroll, pension or government payments payable to you

Bonus will be deposited into your Convenience+ Checking Account within 30 days of getting the direct deposit

The value of the bonus may have to be reported to the IRS; consult your tax advisor

Offer is limited to one per customer, is subject to withdrawal at any time, and is valid only for accounts in good standing

Avoiding Fees

There is a $10 monthly fee on this account. The only way to get it waived is to have a monthly direct deposit of any amount.

“A qualifying direct deposit is an electronic deposit of your salary, pension, Social Security, or other regular monthly income to your account. Transfers from one account to another, or deposits made at a branch location, ATM or through a mobile device, do not qualify as direct deposit. The monthly service fee will be waived for the first statement cycle to allow you to receive direct deposit to your account. After the first statement cycle the monthly service fee will be assessed unless your account received direct deposit.”

Geographic Availability

Amalgamated Bank allows anyone to open an account with them online. The offer landing page will bring you to an application page for anyone in the USA.

Credit Card Funding

If you open a savings account at a different time to the checking account, you can fund that account with another $500. Thanks to reader, Charles.

Hard/Soft Pull

A friend opened the account and reported that he did not get any hard pull. It’s probably a Chex inquiry or a soft pull. More data points here.

Our Verdict

This offer hits most of the right buttons: it’s a soft pull, it’s available online, it’s available nationally, it comes with $500 in credit card funding, and it’s $150 which is decent.

The downside is the direct deposit requirement; it requires an initial direct deposit of $500, and – subsequently – a direct deposit of any amount to keep it fee free. This obstacle is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the bonus is promised to post within 30-days of receiving the $500 direct deposit; you can probably get away with just one or two direct deposits before closing out the account. There’s no mention in the fee schedule of any Early Termination Fee, and we thus assume there is none.

Sorry not related to above but wanted to share that.. now the bank says even if your DD came on first day of acnt opening we will review the account only after 60 days and then within 30 days the promotional offer will be credited in account.

The executive over phone informed me about the new understanding then I escalated it to their manager about the terms and conditions mentioned with the offer on the website but she also said that many customers have got confused about it but the management has taken that call and we can not do any thing. However, they took my Name and Cell # and said we will discuss it internally and will keep you informed. To my surprise the amount was credited to account within few days of this conversation and within 30 days of first DD 🙂

Did you get immediate approval.
Mine went to “We are processing your applications. We will notify you once we are done.” three hours ago.
Funded with Chase Southwest card.
Chase shows pending activity to “Amalgamated Bank Inc”

Took them 48 hours for them to finally send me an approved application email. Took a total of 6 days for the charge to finally clear and show up as a purchases on the Chase Southwest card. For a whole day the charge was not present as pending or cleared on the Chase account. Like it vanished.
So far so good, I guess.

Did this earlier (I got a mailer in the mail). Used Chase CSP and it posted as a purchase.

While you need one DD within 60 days to trigger the bonus (I used a “real” direct deposit from my payroll), the DDs to keep it free and avoid the monthly fee can be in any amount. I changed my $500 payroll DD to $1 after the first one.

I went through all the comments and the article twice, and I don’t see any mention of banks that count as DD. So either it’s not there or my reading comprehension sucks. All I can find is that they accept “any monthly regular income” which could be anything.

I got a decline message ” because we could not verify your identity or other personal information. Please visit a branch to complete your application ”
Is there an email address I can send the document to ? Thanks

Opened checking and savings account and funded with Barclay Arrival+ with no issues. I set my CA to $1 and charges posted as purchase. I opened a checking and savings hoping that I could deposit $500 into each, but it is $500 max total. Savings is fee free so there was no risk, just unnecessary.

Is anyone else receiving the “Outdated Browser Warning” message? I see there is a note on their main page that says the site will be down starting at midnight. After a few seconds the warning message comes on.

You might want to call before you mail forms. The ones they point me to require a Medallion Signature Guarantee, so I just drop them at the local office and they stamp them (or maybe just verify ID) and forward them on. I asked about mailing. They actually gave me prepaid envelopes, but said the forms would have to be stamped before I mailed them … and that they could do it. “If I’m going to come here to get them stamped, why would I … nevermind.” I just took the envelopes, said thanks and left.

It does say you don’t need the Medallion if you attach an account statement or voided check, but that doesn’t help much with a new account when a statement is a month away

Wouldn’t let you link it or wouldn’t let you do it online? After my first Netspend link, Fidelity has not allowed me to link any bank accounts online. Paper request every time, but they go through after a week or two. I’m not sure if it was Netspend or if I’ve opened too many bank accounts recently. Fidelity uses doesn’t use ChexSystems, but gets similar info from Early Warning.
Of course, I talked to Fid and they say Early Warning gives the thumbs up or down. Called Early Warning and they said no dings on my report and they only provide data to Fidelity, no decisions. Fido’s own pop-up says, “… Early Warning provided us with information that influenced our decision not to link your bank account. Early Warning played no part in our decision …”, so its fairly obvious which rep is clueless.
It continues to be an annoyance, but the local office is 17 miles away and I’m usually +/- 5 miles from them every couple weeks, so I just plan ahead.
For me, Fido has ALWAYS worked as DD. They also administer pension plans and even ACH’s from brokerage accounts post as PPD, so I think it’s tougher to distinguish a push from a true DD. YMMV.

Online. They did give me the option of mailing it in. I figured I would only do that as a last resort. Since you’ve had success maybe I’ll try it. In your response to Nick you wrote that “They actually gave me prepaid envelopes,” Were you referring to the PO or Fidelity? How will I know if I need this stamp? Can I still print the forms even though I closed the window yesterday or would I need to try to link the account again to get that option? I spoke to a Fidelity rep months ago about this issue and he told me that some banks they have relationships with Fidelity so that’s why they can link some online but not others. Which banks have you tried to link online and gotten rejected? Have you opened this account yet?

Fidelity gave me the prepaids. Medallion stamp (like a sig guarantee) needed unless you include bank statement or voided check. Link to form (“Bank Wire Form” but its wire or EFT) found on Fidelity page that lists your current bank links. https://fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/electronic-funds-transfer-and-bank-wire.pdf
Rejected for all online links for 12 months now, including Chase and BMO, so “relationship” excuse is BS. Amalgamated account opened.
Happy to help. Email me at wyle.money gmail if you need more info. We’ve gone off topic far enough.

Just opened an account. Funded $500 with Chase FU card. Made two small deposits from my CU into checking and will report back if those post as DD or not. Should take a couple of days to verify. I’ve had good luck with external transfers into other banks from my CU posting as DDs, so fingers crossed.

Also got declined because apparently they couldn’t verify my ID. I feel like there’s a bug in their system.

I actually applied for a Santander account <1 hr beforehand, and it uses the exact same application system. I got the same identification questions and answered in the same way and was not declined with Santander. The woman on the phone for Amalgamated told me that I would have only been declined for answering 4/6 questions incorrect which I definitely did not do. Does it even make sense for one bank's info to be wrong? Is it more likely to be a bug?

The only ID question that I could have gotten wrong was "How long *have* you lived at (PREVIOUS ADDRESS FROM 6 MO AGO)?" I answered with the time that I *had* lived there. Was I supposed to notice the conjugation (have vs had) and say, "AHA! Trick question! Have implies that it is my current residence so the answer is not applicable!"? I feel like I'm the only one really pedantic enough to worry over the difference between have/had in wording.

Same here. I won’t call back since I don’t really want to talk to them and I already have everything I need, like you said it’s probably just a welcome call. If they have something important to tell me they can mail me a letter or something.

Datapoint: I applied online, it went to pending status after I answered the security questions to confirm my ID and I did not get any messages for six days. I called today and was told that I was rejected because I have a fraud alert on my credit report. Good hunting to those who got approved, but this silly rabbit will take a pass on a bank that cannot come up with security procedures to verify an applicant in case of a fraud alert on their record.

Went thru the process to set up the External Transfer Account by verifying the two small transactions amounts per usual. Then set up a transfer of most of my initial deposit back to my external bank. They subsequently “blocked” that transaction until I called to verify that I indeed wanted to make that transaction. Irritating.

Good point. Only half of the listed organizations (The Center, YWCA, and Jobs with Justice) are actually registered 501c3. The others are political activist organizations. Would be nice if they would let us put it into any 501c3 of our choice, but then again it’s their money and they don’t even have to let us have any say at all.

My questions is whether you can actually sign up for an account without directing the $50 to any of those orgs – purely out of curiosity.

Both my wife and my accounts have been opened this morning. In that email it asked us to setup online access, but it then asks for the account number which we don’t know because it’s not in the email and I don’t remember seeing it on the confirmation page. How do I get the account number?

Ken, the account number and routing number can be found on your “my applications” status page, which you already made a login for. It’s the page that shows whether your application is pending/accepting/etc.

trying to setup online banking is so tedious with this bank. you have to call to reset the password? forgot your username? i even had to call to get approval for an online banking account. no way i’m keeping this account after the bonus.

Data point: after the initial checking account is set up with the $500 CC funding, you can do another application to add a savings account for an additional $500 CC funding. You just can’t do both at the same time. I don’t think there is any bonus for that but the CC funding is what I was after. My savings app was 5 days after my checking app.

To those who think the $50 to the mentioned political organizations are too liberal some of that is true. I chose the YWCA because I’ve been to their offices, its not really political at all just helps women get back on their feet with job placement and other help. Choose that one, seems the least liberal/communist if you feel that way.

While I don’t agree with most of these causes, they’re certainly not “communist”, and I certainly have no problem taking the bank’s money either. $150 is $150. I don’t think these people know what Communism really is.

I spoke with representative from Amalgamated Bank on the phone this morning regarding the Direct Deposit to keep the account fee free. I asked if a brokerage account (Motif Investing) would count. She checked on it for me, and basically stated that the direct deposit has to be above a certain amount. It sounded like if there was a monthly deposit of $500 or more, it would work. I will need to follow up if this is actually true (and also if it counts for the bonus). Just wanted to share this information on the post.

I hate when banks pull this crap. When they say “have a direct deposit each month to waive the monthly fee” it’s completely different from “direct deposit at least X amount each month to waive the fee”. Do they expect us to read their minds? Fine print is there for a reason, and it’s worthless if they don’t adhere to their own terms and conditions. A deceptive bank is a worthless bank and should be avoided like the plague, because who knows what else they aren’t telling us.

Did anyone else get a phone call from Amalgamated? A guy saying he was from Amalgamated just left a VM for me. Number showed from the DC area. Didn’t say what it was regarding. Just wanted me to call him back. As far as I know, account is in good standing. Funded $500 with CC and transferred $500 P2P from my CU hoping it would post as DD. It didn’t. That’s been the only activity.

Bill-Pay to my credit card that I funded the accoutn with, and pushed $500 from my USAA Savings account. Still haven’t received any bonus from either action, did anyone else receive a bonus since today is a new month?

After my wife’s account was opened I tried to login to the application to get the account number like I did for mine and it kept saying the password was incorrect even though I copied and pasted it. Reset password and it still said it was incorrect, and then the account was locked. What a PITA. Do they include the account number when they mail the welcome packet?

They provide you with the account number and routing number as soon as your application is approved – I just saved this info and used it for my direct deposit as well as enrolling in online banking. If you remember your username/password that you created when you first opened the application you can log in and check the status where you will find your account number. I have no issues so far with this bank…just waiting on the bonus now.

My AZ payment finally posted and it looks like it does in other bank accounts. No mention of payroll or direct deposit. Transaction type is listed as deposit, but I’d guess everything going into the account is listed as a deposit.

When your real direct deposit posts, would you be able to reply back here with the description of that transaction? That would be a nice benchmark to use for testing DD data points, since It seems like there haven’t been many confirmed DD triggers yet, since it’s so soon.

I guess we’re all still waiting to see what works for the bonus. I myself tried Serve on 5/25. First statement closed on 5/31. Assuming statement will close the last day of every month. I’m wondering if they’re more lenient with what counts as a DD for waiving the monthly fee (like Chase) as I’ll have to try something for June. Except we don’t know what works yet… anyone have any thoughts?

Successfully opened a checking account with $500 from Chase IHG and then opened a savings account a few weeks later for another $500 with Bank of America Major League Baseball World MasterCard (cash advance limit set to $200). Both processed as purchases.

From the ChexSystems web site …
“If you have been denied an account and ChexSystems was used in the decision process, you can request your consumer disclosure report to help you understand what led to this decision.”

I sent inquiry via SM since it’s over 30 days and my bonus has not posted. Reply I got seems like a canned response that didn’t specify whether my DD complied with their terms or not. It would’ve been clear if they said NO, your DD does not comply with the requirements and it has to come from exactly what was under our terms and conditions.

Someone familiar with that application software posted that there is also a time limit in completing the questions and, even with all correct answers, if you took too long looking up info the ID check would fail. Personally, I love the … “on or around May of 2009, you opened an account with …”. I’m thinking, which day during that May, because there’s no “all of the above” answer.

The fine print has changed – they’ve now made it a RECURRING $500 deposit. This after I received a call from a bank rep saying I qualified for the bonus and recommending that I download the app. Does anyone have an older version of the fine print without the word recurring?

“Recurring” doesn’t matter. Most banks use this just to deter people from trying ACH transfers. The fine print still states “At least one qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more must post to your account within 60 days of account opening.”

The fine print, as linked above, now specifies “recurring”. I would love to have the original wording on hand. As with Seacoast, the terms are also subject to change. I suspect they are experiencing a similar remorse, especially with the easier avoidance of fees on their checking accounts.

I took a screen shot of the page when I applied. “… open a Convenience+ Checking Account between April 15 and June 30, 2016, using the URL provided or by mentioning this special offer when you apply by visiting a branch, and you must set up a qualifying recurring direct deposit (including ACH credits of payroll, pension or government payments payable to you) (hereinafter “qualifying direct deposit”) of $500 or more. At least one qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more must post to your account within 60 days of account opening.”

Was told by the banker today that they will be doing a manual review of each account after the 60 days since the account opened. Based on that they will determine whether or not the account qualifies for the bonus.

In other words, it’s not automatic, so they may not be very lenient with the requirements.

This doesn’t sound good, they’re also evading inquiry on the bonus via SM. Instead of saying my $500 DD via ACH does not meet their terms, they’re saying I still have time to comply with the terms to get my bonus. I’m not inclined to put more money if their terms keep on changing.

It seems like my “JPMorgan Chase/Ext Trnsfr” (ACH from a chase Biz Account to Amalgamated) set off the bonus. 33 days after the Deposit.

I did have to call the bank on day 31, and tell the rep that since my account was opened under the original T&C’s, they would need to pay out the bonus within 30 days of the direct deposit, not “within 30 days of 60 days of account opening”

$150 showed up to my account, but there was no transaction accompanying it in the transaction history.

Anyone else that got the bonus not have it show in the transaction history?

I also just saw the bonus posted on my account. I did used Ally Bank, Huntington Bank Bill Pay (BP), and Chase external account transfer. I’m not sure which one counts, but I’m just sharing this information.

Of my 10 checking accounts and 11 credit cards currently open, this crap bank is the only one which will not let me login abroad, no security question option allowed, and since I dont use my US cell # abroad I have no way to sign in unless calling customer service which isn’t 24/7. Im thinking of just cutting my losses with this bonus, not sure if fidelity will trigger and if its $500 needed reoccuring forget it, Im aat $1550 checking bonuses so far this year with $150 still pending from santanderm which seems to be the longest bonus to hit, along with talmer bank.

maybe not, or I got unlucky. Made a $500 payroll DD 5/23, no bonus, SM response was “Thank you for contacting us today with your inquiry. We are currently in the process of reviewing accounts to ensure the criteria has been met. The $150 bonus will be credited to your account within the coming days. “

Amalgamted Bank bonus just posed on 6-22. Did Huntington bank transfer that coded as “P2P” and Serve x2.
Looking at Nikole’s post. Sounds like Serve is the DD source, not the huntington bank. good to know.

They are weird with account closing. Two options: Send in a letter, or better /verified option. Pull out all your money and leave the account at 0 balance. After 30 days of consistent 0 balance, they auto close the accounts. No fees.

Is there online banking working correctly? I enrolled in online banking after opening the checking account, but when I try to login it says it needs to verify by sending a text message to one of two phone numbers I don’t even recognize. I never entered those numbers – not sure what’s going on.

Is their online banking working correctly? I enrolled in online banking after opening the checking account, but when I try to login it says it needs to verify by sending a text message to one of two phone numbers I don’t even recognize. I never entered those numbers – not sure what’s going on.

I had the same question about the online banking – the user id / password you create while creating the application is only for the application, not for online banking. This can be used to save your application and resume later.

For online banking, you may need to “enroll” later on, with your checking account number. I did that and a message said the online banking will be enabled in 1-3 business days.

Another bit of data to add to your knowledge base on this TD card —- I called to reduce cash advance limit and was told that this limit is hard coded to 30% of total credit limit and cannot be changed.

hmm interesting. It looks like the bonus posted just after my 50 cent verification deposit from my bank. I made a $500 transfer yesterday but it didnt post yet..yet I show a $150 pending credit. maybe they are not even verifying deposits and just waiting a month after opening..

unions … takes them 15 days to open my account .. and they don’t even bother to check that the terms are fullfilled before paying out my bonus.. amazing 🙂

Did an ACH Push from Santander Bank to Amalgamated Bank a little almost a month ago.

saw a mysterious $150 added to my checking account but no transaction info about the $150. Also did not get any email of meeting the requirement and getting the $150 like some other people here mentioned.

Yup! Its definitely the $150 Bonus – New Account Promotion. Shows in my transaction history now. So it looks like ACH works (at least with Santander) as well as from Paypal/Serve (according to the above users who tried it with that method).

Also, will we be able to edit our comments in the future? Would be nice!

Anybody tried converting their Convenience Plus checking account to the Affordable checking account to avoid having to meet the DD requirement? Then perhaps we don’t need to close the account right away.

CSR said $500 DD must continue monthly until bonus is posted. Not sure if this is true. I assume we can decrease to $1 DD once bonus posts to avoid the monthly service fee. Any thoughts?

That’s what I used also so good to know it counts as a direct deposit. This will make the subsequent direct deposits to avoid the fee easier than tying up my payroll direct deposit until the account is closed.

Did anyone do multiple people in the same household and have the bonus post for them in both? I opened for myself and wife but bonus only posted to my account and not for the wife. Both were open on the same day.

Another data point: my Arrival+ was treated as a purchase. I had set my cash advance limit to $200.

I’m opening a money market account now and it’s pending as a purchase, so I’m not worried about it being treated as a cash advance. Once the bonus posts, I’ll probably try to open more savings accounts and see if I can fund them all with credit.

what the what? I sent $550 from etrade 7/8. Logged in on amalgamated today to see if it had posted. I found the $150 bonus had already posted on 7/1 with NO deposits at all. The only thing I ever did was open the account with Prestige. Time to empty and close it!

Great bank so far. I’ve asked them various questions via email & chat,
and they’ve responded promptly. They also called me with some follow up
info to a question that was asked via chat. Nice to have support like that.

I dont know why my bonus hasnt posted yet. DD from employer of 500 was on 6/9.
Several data points of deposits after mine have received their bonus. Not sure whats going on. Maybe they are on a particular schedule we are not aware of?

I havent called to ask about the status yet. Tempted to wait till early August maybe (but i think i read you get the bonus within 30 days of DD – might be wrong)

Rep reviewed my account and mentioned the lack of recurring DD (when I signed up it wasn’t in the fine print and I just saw the notes on here a few days ago – if I had called earlier maybe I would have caught it.)

Anyway I have a DD hitting my account tomorrow (outside the 60 days) and the rep says maybe I will get the bonus in August. Not keeping my hopes up and I’m writing this off as a 150$ loss and a lesson.

Funny thing is the rep did not initially see my DD in my list of transactions. I had to point it out to her. Also weird how some DP on here say they got the bonus few days after their DD or even BEFORE the DD hit their account. Makes no sense.

Just managed to downgrade to Affordable Checking using their online chat feature. It has no monthly fee, from there, you can follow the advice of leaving $0 balance and let the account be closed automatically after 30 days.

On my account, I received the bonus last month. On my wife’s, everything was done the same, but no bonus posted. My only thought is her 2nd DD was only $10 instead of $500. I may have to do 1-2 more $500’s and wait until September and hope it posts, then may have to call.

I’m assuming that Serve is what triggered the bonus, since Discover and Ally showed as P2P and detected my real name, but I thought I saw other comments here that said those banks counted, so who knows. Here’s my data point, hope it helps.

7/15 – chat with rep to see if the account opened with checking bonus. msg from chat “Our records indicate you established a Convenience Plus Checking Account with the promotion for $150. We do see that you have established an electronic deposit of $500. and you do meet the requirements for the promotion. Please be advised it takes some time to receive the bonus which is currently in process”

I guess any ACH should trigger the bonus if the chat rep message is true.

Opened my account on 6/30 and still no debit card. Called twice and apparently you have to call and ask for one, it’s not automatically sent. WTH? Anyway, I’ve completed a few $500 DD, but have no way to verify or access the money yet, which is super annoying. Hoping to get the card this week and then hunt down my bonus if it hasn’t posted yet.

I’m being thrown for a loop by Amalgamated – I have previously ranted baove about the bonus not posting due to my DD not being recurring after a phone call with a rep. I had all but given up and written it off. I decided to chat with a rep online and now she says that my account does not have the bonus!!! What ridiculousness? I believe i followed all the steps but something’s fishy here (she may well be right).

I haven’t seen any DP of the bonus not posting especially after employer DD so maybe my account does not have the bonus indeed but i doubt that (no way of confirming without screenshots). Will probably try to call again and see if i get a 3rd opinion. After that I might just close the account

opened an acct end of june; since haven’t got a chance to do a DD in july, got charged a $10 fee earlier in aug.; called to inquire about new acct would have 60 days window to do a DD & got a $10 credit back to the acct.

besides Chase xfer that worked form some folks, did anyone get the bonus from Penfed xfer? TIA

6/9: Applied for account; funded with $500 from Chase Freedom Unlimited
6/10: Account opened
6/16: $500 cleared (coded as purchase)
6/30: Direct deposit from work
7/1: $150 reward received
7/5: Account withdrawn to $0
7/21: Account downgraded to Affordable Checking
8/20: No long able to login to online account; it must have been closed

6/23: opened account with $500 from SWA Premier CC(posted as a purchase)
6/26 opened savings account with $500 from CSP card (posted as a purchase)
7/29 charged partial fee for checking account, about $4 net after offset credit
8/05 Payroll DD finally hits account
8/29 $150 “bonus” in account, no notation in account activity, balance just $150 higher than before.
Not the easiest bonus, but they add up!

Just a data point, if you really don’t like what this bank stands for (like myself), I have been opening & closing accounts to MS $500 at a time when I get new credit cards. Obviously you should do this carefully and not too quickly. I’ve probably only done 3-4 accounts over the past year.

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